Category Archives: Second Life

PanReality Media is seeking a communications director to start immediately.

We do a lot, just the two of us

This is a part-time position with very flexible working conditions, designed to fit the schedule of someone with a full time job elsewhere. Compensation package consists of significant equity in a vigorous emerging media company comprised of, and owned by, a troupe of talented performers and media professionals.

Duties include: managing social media marketing campaigns, collateral design and distribution systems to coordinate with our live and recorded shows, overseeing our fan contact base, and the creation of business communications for both internal and external audiences.

A couple of weeks ago, the 48 Hour Film Project took place in a very special town — the town of Machinima.

For those unfamiliar, machinima is a form of rapid animation that uses game engines to do the rendering instead of highly specialized software and powerful server farms. One of the most famous machinima series of all time was Red vs. Blue created using the Halo engine and some wickedly funny writing. (One of our favorites was the Strangerhood series created with the Sims 2 engine.)

Here’s an example of a machinima film made for last year’s 48HFP competition. It won the Audience Choice award.

This year’s entries are scheduled to be screened in Second Life on Saturday, Oct 1 at 3pm PDT. The location has not been officially announced, but we believe it will be at the Linden Endowment for the Arts Theatre.

If you’ve never been in Second Life, it’s quite easy. You simply create a free account, and download the free software — then you’re good to go. The Second Life viewer takes no more resources than Firefox. So get on it, and we’ll see you at the show on Saturday.

Although the San Jose competition is complete, there is a lot of great news to share with you. So take a look and see what’s next for Bay Area independent and competitive filmmakers.

In this update:

San Jose Awards

National Film Challenge

48 Hour Film Project Machinima

Poppy Jasper Film Festival Placement

ArtShots Returns

San Jose Awards

The awards for the 2011 San Jose 48 Hour Film Project are official. You can see them here at our City Page, or read a writeup at the See It Online blog along with judges biographies. The awards ceremony on Sept 10 was a big hit with candidate filmmakers turning out in force. This year we published a Twitter stream live from the show for filmmakers and fans who could not be there in person. The tweet activity can be seen collected at this page. Even if you were there, you might be interested to see what folks were tweeting from the theater.

National Film Challenge

Some competitive filmmakers cannot get enough of the game — so there’s the National Film Challenge, a sister competition to the 48HFP. Registration is open now and the competition weekend is Oct 21-24. Filmmakers can register right here, and film fans will want to sign up for updates so that you can see the films when they are completed. Or if you prefer, connect on Facebook to be a part of the conversation that surrounds this worldwide event.

48 Hour Film Project Machinima

Your event production team at the San Jose 48HFP couldn’t bear to see the filmmakers have all the fun, so we put together a team to submit an entry in the Machinima 48 Hour Film Project. According to the rules, our film could not compete for jury awards, but that was perfectly fine with us. Veteran 48HFP team leaders will tell you that the process and the experience of sharing the film with the audience are the really big prizes.

You can see the film we submitted along with the other astounding things that people create in machinima by attending the screening on Saturday, Oct 1. To attend, simply download the free software from Second Life and sign up for a free account. Details about the location will be available on the Machinima City page when they are official.

Poppy Jasper Film Festival Placement

Several of the films created for the San Jose competition will be seen by audiences at the Poppy Jasper Film Festival in October. MovieMaker Magazine called the Poppy Jasper “One of the top 25 festivals for bringing filmmakers and movie industry professionals together..“

We’re proud to announce that these films will open the program at screenings throughout the festival weekend (Oct 14-16).

The Pile – Chikinbone

Stuffed – Square Marden

Give Me A Sign – South Bay Shooters

Dead Weight Man – Five by Five Films

Moonlight – EyeQ Films

Frank, The Genie, and the Golden Colt – Stabbin’ My Jelly!

Stay in touch with us through our Facebook page for news about showtimes so you can be there yourself!

ArtShots Returns

ArtShots is a filmmaking competition that pairs up filmmakers with prominent artists and arts organizations to make a short sizzle reel. Filmmakers who competed in the 2010 ArtShots competition had the opportunity to work closely with established artists such as the San Jose Symphony Chorale and power folk band Tin Cat.

We say that musicians and artists are the filmmakers’ resource for enhancing the fabric of your story on screen. So this competition gives artists and arts organizations a chance to be known, and filmmakers a chance to work with talented artists who might be perfect for the next project.

This year, arts and film community leaders in cities beyond the Silicon Valley have asked to have the competition include them. As a result, you can expect it to gain higher visibility than before. Filmmakers will be able to register for the competition beginning in the first week of October. Stay tuned to our Facebook page for official details.

48HFP Filmmakers Don’t Sleep

Some of you don’t sleep during your competition weekend, and we’re committed to responding by continuing to remain alert for opportunities to offer you chances to get your work in front of audiences. Be sure and drop us a note if you see something you think we might try to get more eyeballs on your films. We’d love to hear from you.

We went looking for some examples of Machinima music videos. We never expected to find this gem.

The musician, Hazideon Zarco, has been playing in Second Life for a long time. We found the music to be engaging, and we really like the work of machinimatographer, Flimsey Freenote. This was good stuff and we hope to hear more.